Perception Filter
by PocketSizedWolf
Summary: When Jenny crash lands in America in 1993, injured and dying, she regenerates and creates a whole new life. And then another one.


The dust hurt her eyes. The flames scorched her skin. Every cell of her body was screaming in agony as she crawled out of the mangled wreckage that used to be her shuttle craft. A sharp piece of metal dug into her hip, cutting through her trousers and into her flesh, and she cried out to no one. With sheer grit and determination, Jenny hoisted herself out of the shattered window, pulling her backpack behind her. The metal drags down her side, splitting open her flesh, while small splinters of glass embedded them-self into her flesh. A cry of pain left her as she rolled onto the grass, looking on in horror as her faithful shuttle burned internally. She shuffled backwards, her eyes still fixed on the damaged metal contraption, as sparks began to fly, occasionally hitting her. She attempted to rise to her feet, agony coursing through her body as she placed her right foot to the floor. She stumbled, falling forward but managing to stop her face hitting the solid ground. She moved away from the craft, her movement somewhere between a crawl and a walk as she attempted to ease the weight placed on her right leg. She was no more than 20 feet away, she heard a loud explosion as her beloved ship broke apart.

Jenny covered her head as metal flew about the field, shrapnel reining down around her. A sharp piece flew into her arm, cutting into flesh, hitting bone. She hissed in pain, looking at the piece. Part of the serial number for her ship. With a hiss, she pulled the metal from her arm, reading the letters upon it before throwing it aside. The letters AGRA stick in her mind as she stops moving, and sits down, staring at the ship. She's losing blood, she can feel that. Lots of blood, pooling from her wounds, sticking to her clothes, staining it.

She stares at her hands as they begin to glow, energy pooling around her fingers. She's regenerating. She knows that without having to be told. This is what it means to be a Time Lord. She hopes she gets to stay blonde. She does like blonde. Her eyes squeeze shut as the glowing energy covers her body, changing it, manipulating it. It hurts. She didn't expect that. Her bones change shape, her entire insides twisting, becoming new. The only thing that remains the same is her hearts, beating constantly throughout the whole process.

She's no longer Jenny when the process is done. Jenny needs to disappear. By the time she reaches the nearest town, the name Alexandra is in her head. That's where she'd been last, after all. Alexandria, where she had sipped wine with Cleopatra herself before the odd two-headed demon had attacked the city. Jenny had done as her father would have. She destroyed the being, but was exiled by the last Queen of Egypt. She had been Jenny then. She would never be Jenny again.

She's thankful she saved her backpack when she finally settles down within a hotel. A card with unlimited universal credits and a device that can give her an entirely new life have survived the journey. She leaves all that behind, for now, as she sinks into hot bubbly water, sipping a hot cup of tea. She studies herself in detail when the water finally becomes cold enough to force her from the soothing bath. Her face isn't much different, though it's certainly not the same. She kept her blue eyes, and her cheekbones are something to be desired. She looks about eighteen years old, and thick, dark hair rests around her shoulders. She'll need new clothes. The ones she has are covered in blood, and ripped, but they'll have to do until she can get to some shops. Five minutes with her machine tells her she's landed on Earth, in America, along the east coast in 1992. The technology and connections she'll need don't exist yet. She's so far away from home.

Alexandra Grace Rebecca Allen, that's the name she settles on. She tries her best to keep life interesting, as interesting as it can be without travel through time and space anyway. Mentally, she curses herself for wiring the vortex manipulator given to her by a time agent into her shuttle's control panel. It made travelling through time easier, less draining, but now she was stuck in one time. She'd have to take the slow route like everyone else. She picks up the American accent easily. Accents were never that difficult.

Joining the CIA isn't even a decision. It has everything she is and needs. She was born for war, it's built into her DNA, and she easily becomes the greatest shot working for the organisation. Occasionally she feels guilty. Not for the killings, but because she doesn't feel guilty about the killings. This isn't her fight. It doesn't matter to her who wins and who loses. Humans are funny creatures, and she has lost everything that is good.

They send her to Russia undercover. The flight bores her, and she tries to remember how the stars looked as she passed them in her shuttle. Her eyes drift closed, and she envisions other planets, the other species, the worlds she saved. It hits her then, causes pain in her very hearts. She used to be different. She remembers it, how good it felt. Perhaps she still has some good in her. Her father's voice echoes in her ear, telling her that she has a choice. Before the plane lands, that choice has been made.

Mary is much easier to become than she had expected. Alexandra is dead, lost to the Russians after she failed to kill her target. Or so they think. This time, she decides to take a different route, leaving the assassin, the soldier behind. Nursing calls to her, and she answers. It takes her three hours to learn everything she needs to learn, and less than half that time to forge all the relevant documents. She leaves a paper trail in the heart of government files, records of her birth, her schooling, her previous jobs. It doesn't take her long to find a job.

For two years, she works at the same clinic. It's enjoyable but not entirely exciting. Every patient she helps makes her feel less guilty about those she killed until the guilt disappears almost entirely. She knows it's not right to feel this way, but she's not like other people. She gives in to human traditions quickly. She celebrates Christmas and birthdays, begins to date. She never thinks anything will come of it, but David manages to entertain her for two months.

She wasn't expecting to ever fall in love with a human.

Four years to the day of Mary's creation, her life changes forever. Four years to the day of Mary's creation, she becomes more human than she could ever hope to be. Because four years to the day of Mary's creation, John Watson enters her life.


End file.
